Barcelona On Film - 2

Camera: Olympus XA2 // Film: Fujicolor C200 Expired: 2006.
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Can you tell I'm short from the angle of some of these photos? Ha. They're from the second film from our Barcelona trip. Some of the photos turned out great, but I know I missed a load of amazing shots. The film didn't pull through properly and I didn't realise until half way through the day, boo! By then the day had got a little dull.

You can see in all of the photos too how green it is, that city is full of trees. The beautiful architecture mixed in with natures makes it my favourite place. The first photo is the view over the city and out to sea from Park Guell. You can see Sagrada Familia on the left, it looked pretty amazing from up there. 

You can see more of the photos from this film on my flickr.

Barcelona - On Film.

Camera: Olympus XA2 // Film: Kodak Ektar ISO 100.

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This is the first roll of film from our Barcelona trip. The second film is only half finished, but I'm sure it'll fill up soon. I love real life photographs. I'm always so excited/scared when I pick them up from processing. I do always regret that I didn't take more photos, but I'm pretty happy with these. And super happy to frame my favourites, and start a new photo album.

I'm going to have the third photo blown up and framed for sure. I was so nervous when we first hired the bikes (it was a hot day and I am unfit) but we rode about 15 miles, right down the coast. And it was beautiful (look at that sea!!). We went places we'd never have gone by foot. It was so much fun exploring. We stopped off at a little restaurant, Aguaribay, which had the best bean salad ever. I am determined to recreate it. I also may have crashed into a bench when I saw the cutest boxer puppy ever. Totally worth it. I will definitely be hiring bikes whilst exploring other countries from now on. Good friends and bikes make the best days.

I'm getting back into the habit of using my flickr again, you can find me here.

Barcelona - Exploring Park Güell

Park Güell is a neat little garden/village overlooking Barcelona. It was designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi for Eusebi Güell, an entrepreneur. Originally there was planning for 60ish houses, but only two were built (neither of which were designed by Gaudi). It was a bit of a flop. But now, 100 years later it is a beautiful park.

We got the metro to Lesseps, then walked up to the park. It is high and the road was really really steep. It actually wasn't as bad of a walk as we expected, totally worth the sweat and cursing at my bad choice of footwear. The main area of the park was packed with people, which sucked. It was also full of guys selling crap (blankets, sunglasses etc), this sucked too. The views are beautiful; Güell wanted to take advantage of the clean air up on the hills, away from the factory smog below. We spent ages exploring and admiring the plants, flowers and trees. The plants attract a whole heap of birds too, which I spent a lot of time spying on (I love parakeets!). I wish I had taken more photos of the mosaic work and the buildings themselves (There will be a lot of those on film which is busy being developed).

The whole park is free, apart from getting into the houses themselves (which we didn't do) and the beer (which we did do). Definitely definitely recommend it.

Optimus Primavera Sound

For those of you who haven't heard about Primavera festival, it's a 3-4 day long music festival which started in Barcelona in 2001. I have been for the last 2 years, and loved it. I've seen the Pixies, Pulp, Battles, Pissed Jeans, Field Music, Odd Future, Pavement and, my favourite of all, Sufjan Stevens. This year saw the first Optimus Primavera Sound, the Portugese version, the weekend ticket was a lot cheaper than its Barcelona sister, so we decided to go there instead. At first I was not happy with this decision, I LOVE BARCELONA. But, I am so glad to have been at the first ever Optimus Primavera Porto and experience a new city. 

The biggest difference between the two festivals, Optimus is based in Parque da cidade, a huge park! The original festival is in a weird purpose built concrete area, still amazing, but with little places to have a proper sit down and relax. I think this was the reason the atmosphere was a lot more chilled out, tote bags were handed out all weekend, that folded out into amazing orange gingham picnic blankets, so everyone was sat down with friends, watching bands from a distance during the day enjoying the sun and having a good time. Whoever had the idea for the blanket bags is a genius!

The drinks options at the Barcelona festival sucked, Jack Daniels, Jagermeister or San Miguel, the first two are a recipe for disaster, and the last leave me a bloated mess ball. At Optimus there was SO many more options, and best of all, sangria! The food options sucked a little, there was basically nothing for vegetarians, let alone vegans, hopefully they will notice this though and chance it for next year. Fingers crossed.

The highlight of the music for me was M83, I saw them earlier in the year, but outside on a huge stage where I was right at the front with thousands of people behind me made it a whole lot better. I also got to see, and loved the Dirty Three, Flaming Lips, Shellac and Yann Tiersen. Not as many people played compared to Barcelona, I think because no one knew how it was going to be received, I'm sure that will change for next year through.

If you like the sound of the music, I highly recommend you go to either of the two.

Are you off to a festival this year? Home or abroad? I'm interested in knowing where it is you're going. There are so many festivals, give me some tips!